October 24, 2018

Khashoggi's murder could be a game changer

Javed Akbar

The murder of a dissident journalist has had more global impact than unchecked Saudi aggression in Yemen.

Yemen is important for the Saudis and Emirates
for many reasons.

For one, they view it; much like the US views
Latin America, as their backyard. They are loath to seeing a government there that
does not toe their line. They are also too obsessed with their competition with
Iran and believe that they are preventing Iran from establishing a strong foothold
there. The area is very strategic from geopolitical and economic standpoints given
its location at the Bab Al-Mandib (important for sea lanes and transportation routes
for commercial marine shipping and oil tankers) and proximity to the Horn of Africa,
where the two countries have been extending their influence over the recent years.
But such direct military interventions, which are usually born out of conceited
blindness to the limits of military might and brutal force, are very dangerous and
rarely succeed, especially in areas where geography and topography privilege defense.
This brings to mind Henry Kissinger`s famous dictum that the conventional army loses
if it does not win; the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The US intervention
in Vietnam, the Soviet Union’s intervention in Afghanistan, and the Egyptian intervention
in Yemen in the 1960s, is just a few cases in point. Unfortunately, all too often,
those blinded by the arrogance of power become oblivious to such historical truisms.

Yemen’s fate hangs in the balance as the world
watches heart-wrenching scenes of hospitals being bombed and sticks thin children
crying because they’re hungry. Saudi conduct of its ill-fated war in Yemen with
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the chief proponent of this war and his often
coercive approach to diplomatic relations, has opened the door to challenges of
the kingdom’s moral leadership of the Sunni Muslim world, a legitimizing pillar
of the ruling Al Saud family’s grip on power. Malaysia for one, “and other Muslim
nations can no longer look up to the Saudis like we used to” says Raja Kamarul Bahrin
Shah Raja Ahmad, a member of Malaysia’s upper house of parliament. “They can no
longer command our respect and provide leadership”

Despite thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen,
both the UN Secretariat and the Security Council have been muted in their criticism
of the Saudi-led coalition's actions in that country. The UN has received nearly
$1 billion from Saudi Arabia and UAE for humanitarian response to Yemen crisis.
But the cold blooded murder of Washington Post columnist and dissident journalist
Jamal Khashoggi could be a game changer. The violence enacted by Saudi
aggression on the people of Yemen, springs from the same source as the violence
allegedly used against Khashoggi in the Turkish embassy. Both are colossal, tragic,
strategic errors involving the deployment of unimaginable brutality in a vain attempt
to cow the imagined enemies of the Kingdom. It has finally unified the world and
diverted the attention to the plight of the Yemenis facing famine, death and massive
destruction. Washington views the savage against Yemen strictly through the lens
of geo-strategic interests. It is seen as a means of countering Iranian influence
and asserting US hegemony in the region.

As the news of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance
at first and then his murder shocked people around the world, practically overnight,
longtime American supporters of the alliance are disavowing the kingdom. American
businesses are pulling back from Saudi Arabia. Even Washington think tanks, among
the most pro-Saudi institutions in the United States, are sending back Saudi money.

As former CIA and Pentagon official Bruce Riedel
said in
2016: “If the United States of America and the United Kingdom tonight
told King Salman that this war has to end, it would end tomorrow, because the Royal
Saudi Air force cannot operate without American and British support.”

The murder of one individual has provoked a
backlash to Saudi practices in a way that mass suffering in Yemen did not. This
is arguably the best chance the world had in years to end the horrendous war in
Yemen. It should not go to waste.